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Friday, October 11, 2013

Upcoming SATEVEPOST cartoon - Roy Delgado

Saturday Evening Post is to appear in the upcoming December issue, I believe it is now called the Nov/Dec

issue . . . . Funny thing about this cartoon, when I had my sign company in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area from 75 to 2001, my Sign Company ended up specializing in electric/neon signs.

I was approached to bid on the very first STARBUCKS

Coffee Shop location On the east coast, so I was told . .

It was to be located at McLean Gardens, on Wisconsin Blvd.,) a strip mall in an upscale area ) it was all hush-hush and it was top secret then, we could not mention the store to anybody. This event happened during

the "blizzard of '93.

The store was due to open on a Monday, and I heard this

unknown company ( at that time ) planned to open 26 stores in the area . . . I used to hear this a lot, usually it was pipe dreams or B.S. to get you excited . . .

Anyway, this location called for a 48 inch diameter interior-lighted logo disk ( the mermaid, etc., green and black translucent film on white translucent plexiglas ) to be installed on a large brick wall on the outside plus one set15 inch brushed stainless steel letters with welded 5 inch returns. The letters had a clear plexi back and also housed white neon for a 'halo-effect' on the backs of the letters which were installed a couple inches offset from the wall. It was well designed I thought and was a tough job to meet the deadline, about 3 weeks in the dead of winter! The blizzard was due to hit the Washington, D.C. area on Friday!, the day we had planned to begin installation of the job! It was a 2 man installation planned for Friday and Saturday . . . that left me Sunday to finish up if necessary. By the time Friday came, my men were there and the snow was falling . . . and falling.

It snowed for 3 days !

The other contractors . . . The drywall men, the electricians . . . the painters began to drop like flies starting about 1:30 PM and began leaving the ship to leave for home . . .

My men were the ONLY workers to stay and we completed the job, just as promised !

This, I had promised. No lousy blizzard was going to stop us, no way.

Monday morning came. About 10:30 AM I get a call

from a Howard Schultz. I actually never heard of the guy!

I'll never forget the conversation . . . He

told me that he was impressed that we completed the job on time and looked real good.

He then went on to tell me that OUR company were the

only people who stayed and completed the job as promised. HE ( Howard Schultz ) then asked me:

" How'd you do it ? !"

I said: ( kind of cocky ) " It was simple, I just sent my "A" team out for this installation. It's comprised of a former Marine Embassy Guard ( Russia ) and an

Ex- Green Beret . . . . I just told them: " This is an important job and it has to be completed by Saturday because the store plans to open first thing Monday. "

"That's all I said and I forgot about it.

I knew a blizzard was coming but it

wasn't our problem. "

I will NEVER forget what he said: He listened carefully to my story, then replied . . .

" MAYBE THAT'S WHAT I OUGHT TO DO ! "

HE, Howard Shultz, CEO of STARBUCKS

is telling Roy Delgado, " Maybe that's what

I ought to do ! "

Man, it doesn't get any better than this !

......................

I was rewarded by being being guaranteed the next

24 stores in the Metro D.C. area, one store in Boston, one in Greenwich and a big one in Atlanta !

It's amazing, sometimes to succeed all you have to

do is what somebody will NOT do.

MY company, Delgado Signs in Woodbridge, VA. was sold in 2001 when I retired to draw cartoons passionately full time in wild and wonderful West by-God Virginia where I now live with my lovely wife and three cats, MIDNIGHT, ROCKY ( BULJERT ) AND EDDIE.

Now MANKOFF, is my only problem from selling the New Yorker. I WILL sell the New Yorker.

3 comments:

Great story, Roy, totally loved it!My experiencing of communicating with Starbucks was a bit different - I got a letter from their legal department requesting that I remove all "photoshoped versions" of their logo that my members were photoshopping in a contest. One image that triggered their attention became quite popular on the web and was called "Starbuck girls", and the lawyers said that it was messing up with their corporate identity.

Hey, Vlad, Thanks for your " Starbucks story " ! Enjoyed it ! Just saw a documentry called " WHO KILLED JOSEF STALIN ? " The thinking is that Beria probably was behind it. Any rumors over where you're at ? Or is the subject a NO-NO ? Maybe if Putin knows you're talking to me about it, He'll start watching you ? HA !

Hey, Roy,Thanks for your reply! There are many speculations about Stalin's death and who might have been behind it. I think I have read at least 3 articles about it and saw at least as many documentaries through the years. Beria was one that certainly fancied taking Stalin's place after Stalin, and he had collected "thick files" against other people around Stalin, so that he could easily put them away as "state enemies". From the documentaries I saw it's hard to judge whether Stalin was actually killed. BUT when he had a stroke, Beria made sure Stalin did not get an immediate help and thus he stayed paralyzed till his death which followed days after. Beria's dreams of taking the Stalins place did not come true though, as he was quickly arrested, charged, and executed as a "state enemy". Talk about karma coming back at ya!

Putin is not watching me, I hope... I surely would like to see him replaced in the next elections.

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About Me

After high school graduation, I attended The Billy Hon School of Cartooning in Los Angeles.
I then joined the U.S. Marines for four years. After military discharge in Washington, D.C. I attended The Corcoran School of Art in the nation's capital where I studied anatomy for two years.
In 1976 I opened Roy Delgado's Sign Studio in Falls Church, Virginia where the company grew to a full service sign company including a complete sheet metal, welding and neon plant where the company grew to 32 employees and were involved in designing and manufacturing huge sign programs for IBM, McDonald's, Fuddruckers, Starbucks and many other Fortune 500 companies.
The company was sold in 2001.
I now live in my mountain-top home and studio in beautiful, wild and wonderful West Virginia with my lovely wife, Betty of 51 years and three cats, Midnight, Rocky ( as in Balboa ) and newly acquired Fast Eddie ( as in The Hustler ).
I stay busy passionately drawing cartoons full time and my cartoons have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Barron's, Saturday Evening Post, Medical Economics, National Lampoon books, Reader's Digest, Playboy, Etc.